<p>I'm just taking a chance and applying to Yale RD.</p>
<p>Constructive criticism and genuine advice would be greatly appreciated - about Yale or any of my other schools. Thank you :) </p>
<p>Objective:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): 2190 - 740 CR, 670 M, 780 W
[</em>] ACT:
[<em>] SAT Subject Tests: 710 LIT, 660 BIO (these scores are disastrous)
[</em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
[<em>] Weighted GPA: 4.3
[</em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/430
[<em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): BIO (4), CALC AB (5)
[</em>] IB (place score in parenthesis):
[<em>] Senior Year Course Load: AP Calculus BC, AP Literature, Physics (R), Journalism (Newspaper), Speech and Debate, AP Government
Took all AP/Honors of academic subjects except for Regular Physics :(
[</em>] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): First Alternate for Girls State, Posse Scholarship Semi-finalist
[/ul] Subjective:[ul]
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Korea Society's Project Bridge Youth Ambassador - 11
Newspaper (Entertainment Editor, Editor in Chief) 10-12
Volleyball (League Champs x2, CIF Quarter Finalists last year, Varsity Scholar Athlete) 10-12
Club Volleyball (Most Improved) 10-11
Interact Service Club (Service Circle Leader, Social Chair) 9-12
Speech and Debate 9-12
Readers Club (Treasurer) 10-12
BP Fashion Board (hahahahahahahahaha, why not) 11-12
FBLA 9-10
Model UN 11-12
ROP Video Art 11
[<em>] Job/Work Experience:
Youth Counselor to a summer school - summer before 12
Youth Apprentice at MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) - 12
[</em>] Volunteer/Community service:
150+ hours from Interact
Volunteered at Cedars Sinai over the summer in the neurology dept. THEY LOVED ME <3
[<em>] Summer Activities: Nominated by my school to attend YCS at Pepperdine
Freshi Film Camp (sponsored by my summer school employer)
[/ul]
Essays (subjects and personal opinions):[ul]
[li] Common App Main Essay: essay about my experience with MOCA (I would have never fathomed working in a museum with such wild peers) and how my diverse interests brought me there. I actually like it and so did my readers.[/li][</em>] Teacher Recommendation 1: AP Calc AB teacher who loves me! Not sure if he's the greatest writer but I tutor his struggling kids whenever I come in to say hi... and I skipped a week of school right before AP tests to go on the Korea trip and came back and aced the AP Calc AB test! :D (He prepared us really well.)
[<em>] Teacher Recommendation 2: Torn between asking my journalism/AP Lit teacher (who I've had for three years) or my junior Honors English teacher. I look up to both in very different ways, but my AP Lit teacher is more blunt/sarcastic in a preppy manner while my Honors English teacher is free flowing. My AP Lit teacher has seen a lot of my bad side (as a result from such a long time with me). In reality, I'm heartbroken that I must choose between these two amazing teachers.
Probably going to go with my AP Lit teacher just because she's known me longer.
[</em>] Counselor Rec: I get a feeling of apathy from her... I can guarantee it's not going to be stellar.</p>
<p>[/ul]Other[ul]
[<em>] State (if domestic applicant): CA
[</em>] School Type: Public
[<em>] Ethnicity: Asian
[</em>] Gender: Female
[li] Income Bracket: less than 60k[/li][/ul]Other Colleges[ul]</p>
<p>[li] Yale, Northwestern, Stanford, Duke, NYU, Boston University, UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego (safety), UC Irvine (safety) [/li][/ul]</p>
<p>@ mjx891- you are probably very new to collegeconfidential forums. Take a look at the Results thread for Yale before you give any more criticism, and you will see that though there are Asians with 2300+ that get rejected, there are also many with stats just like helloahmy who get accepted as well. </p>
<p>You will also notice that those who have such high scores and get rejected normally have weak extracurriculars. So helloahmy you do have a chance especially with your involvement in so many community service activities, but yeah it is a very very good idea to have safety schools as well. Since admissions to Ivies can be very sporadic at times. Good luck! </p>
<p>Also i would try to improve that Biology SAT 2 test as mjx891 pointed out or take another test. :)</p>
<p>Yes I would retake it. Just to show that your want to improve even if it is after the deadline. You could send Yale a quick post saying you are retaking it. It might not make a difference, it might change everything. I say go for it and your chances are fair to me.</p>
<p>Do you think it’ll hurt at all if I apply undecided? More and more people are telling me to feign an interest in a major and change it later on. Apparently, from what I’ve heard, there’s a threshold for admitting undecided students (particularly because they’ve yet to realize what they want to do with their lives).</p>
<p>At the same time, students change their major 2-7 times throughout their college career.
So, I wouldn’t think it’d matter.</p>
<p>My problem is that there’s too many things I want to do, and I’m not sure which is particularly right for me.</p>
<p>I say write down a few like 2-3 (I say 2) majors because I do believe that putting down undecided won’t hurt your chances but will make them think you don’t know what you want to do. Just put down 2 just to be safe and later on change it because they do except you to change it but they also except you to at least have an idea. </p>
<p>No Yale won’t take it wrongly if you put one down and then change it later. They don’t look into that stuff, they’re probbaly too busy.</p>
<p>Yup. In order to participate in speech and debate and journalism, you have to take classes for them. Plus, you’re not allowed to take APs until Junior year.</p>
<p>Here’s my junior year schedule:
AP CALC
AP BIO
HONORS ENG III (we don’t offer AP Lang)
spanish 4 (skipped spanish 3)
journalism
speech
& volleyball for no credit</p>
<p>Also… if I retook my SAT II’s and did horribly after my first test (darn those three hour tests), should I just take the ACT instead to avoid sending in my poor SAT II history?</p>
<p>Uhhh hmmm…well that would mean studying for a completely different test. When really just one SAT 2 exam wouldn’t mean too much as long as you have other good test scores to balance it off. :). Also I was told a few days ago by my advisor that the reason some colleges ask for all your SAT scores is to show your growth and to make sure your test isn’t the product of 5 bijillion hours of cramming. </p>
<p>If you feel like you would do very well in ACT and you feel prepared, then I guess i would go for it. But I just don’t know if you have much time since ACT is on December 10th, going into a test w/o some sort of preparation seems like a waste of time and money.
Whatever you choose though, i hope it all goes well! :D</p>
<p>Thanks SpeakerBoxer! Thought I might as well update you – I ended up taking the ACT and it went alright. I’m hoping I get the ACT equivalent at least of my SAT score (I believe it transfers to a 33… 32 for only M/R).</p>
There is no reason to state a major instead of “undecided”. How is any high school kid supposed to know they would fall in love with anthropology or linguistics. These schools look for kids with the intellectual curiosity to be open to find a major and are not hoping that 90% of the incoming freshman know what they want to do. I wish that Yale and the others would remove that question from the applications to assuage any concerns about answering honestly that you are just undecided.</p>
<p>That is great Helloahmy!!! Yeah I think with an ACT you won’t have to send any SAT test scores. Well done, hope it all goes well!
Oooohhh and you’re a fellow Speech and Debater, lots of respect! XD</p>
Well done, hope it all goes well!